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[h=1]Transvestite crook steals her identity[/h]
By Wang Tianjie & Shaffiq Alkhatib
The New Paper
Monday, Apr 08, 2013
She had lost her identity card about 27 years ago, but she reported it, got a replacement, and thought nothing of it.
So imagine Madam Tan Lay See's surprise when police officers knocked on her door last year and informed her that her identity had been used by a man to commit crimes.
"I was really shocked and wondered why this was uncovered only after so many years," said the 51-year-old housewife, speaking in Mandarin.
It was a man who committed the crimes using her identity. He was a transvestite who strongly resembled her, said Madam Tan.
"He actually really looked like me. He had long hair tied up just like I did at the time, except that I have a mole under my left eye," she said.
Madam Tan added: "I didn't even know he was a transvestite until one of the female police officers told me."
Hers wasn't the only case.
Six other people also found themselves with criminal convictions - in name only - for crimes they did not commit because the real culprits had used their ICs and pretended to be them.
Expunge
On Friday at the High Court, deputy public prosecutors Hay Hung Chun and Ruth Wong made an application to expunge the convictions of all seven - including Madam Tan - for offences ranging from theft to gambling.
They had been convicted after the real culprits had assumed their identities between 1974 and 2007 to serve their sentences.
According to court documents, the mistakes were discovered by the police during a comprehensive review of the criminal records database.
In all seven cases, the DPPs said the right thumb print records of the seven which were registered with the national registration office did not match those registered under the Registration of Criminals Act (RCA).
Anyone arrested would have had their fingerprints registered under the RCA. So, they could not have committed the crimes.
The actual culprits in three of the cases had admitted they had assumed their victims' identities when they were first arrested by the police and when they were convicted by the Subordinate Courts for these offences.
The court heard that Kim Boon Tee , Lie Sun Ui and Mamat had assumed the identities of Mr Tan Yiam Kwang , Mr Lee Yak Ooi and Mr Sha'Aban Yahya respectively.
The DPPs said Madam Tan's identity had been used by Gee Kok Wah, a Malaysian man who was sent back across the Causeway on March 1, 1992.
He had been arrested the day before by the anti-vice enforcement unit.
There has been no record of Gee entering Singapore since.
The authorities have also yet to identify the actual culprits in the remaining three cases.
The culprits in these three cases had assumed the identities of two women and a man, later identified as Ms Loh Choon Lui , Ms Tan Boon Chiah and Mr Sirat Haji Abdul Karim.
The experience left Madam Tan shaken.
"I was really afraid when I saw how closely he resembled me," recalled Madam Tan.
"What if he commits more crimes using my identity? He can use my IC to do so many things," she said.
"In the past, I never thought the IC was much important... Now I think I should leave it at home. It's safer."
How it came to light
It all began in 2009, when police officers uncovered a case where a man had fraudulently represented himself as another person when he was charged in court for criminal offences including theft.
As a result, his criminal record had been incorrectly attributed to an innocent party.
The police informed the innocent party later that year.
Following this case, the police reviewed its entire database of more than 500,000 criminal records and found six earlier cases of impersonation that had taken place between 20 and 40 years ago.
A police spokesman said that as part of the review, officers conducted thorough checks by comparing databases from the police and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority to verify the identities of the accused persons.
Fingerprint experts
The spokesman added: "Further verifications were conducted by fingerprint experts. As the cases had taken place more than two decades ago, time was needed to establish the facts of the cases, culpability of victims and subsequent identification of the accused persons.
"There was no miscarriage of justice. All the accused persons in these cases of impersonation had been correctly dealt with in court and sentenced for the crime they committed 20 to 40 years ago."
The police added that these cases of impersonation had occurred during a time when visual matching of fingerprints was done manually to confirm the identity of persons arrested by police.
Today, measures are in place to verify the identity of accused persons before they are charged in court.
The process now involves the use of fingerprint scanning devices and computerised checks with fingerprint databases, thus minimising the chance of human error.
"We have also stepped up our internal audits and protocol compliance checks to ensure such lapses do not recur," said the spokesman.
It had taken the police two years to scrutinise all their records. They are still investigating the impersonators.
Get The New Paper for more stories.
By Wang Tianjie & Shaffiq Alkhatib
The New Paper
Monday, Apr 08, 2013
She had lost her identity card about 27 years ago, but she reported it, got a replacement, and thought nothing of it.
So imagine Madam Tan Lay See's surprise when police officers knocked on her door last year and informed her that her identity had been used by a man to commit crimes.
"I was really shocked and wondered why this was uncovered only after so many years," said the 51-year-old housewife, speaking in Mandarin.
It was a man who committed the crimes using her identity. He was a transvestite who strongly resembled her, said Madam Tan.
"He actually really looked like me. He had long hair tied up just like I did at the time, except that I have a mole under my left eye," she said.
Madam Tan added: "I didn't even know he was a transvestite until one of the female police officers told me."
Hers wasn't the only case.
Six other people also found themselves with criminal convictions - in name only - for crimes they did not commit because the real culprits had used their ICs and pretended to be them.
Expunge
On Friday at the High Court, deputy public prosecutors Hay Hung Chun and Ruth Wong made an application to expunge the convictions of all seven - including Madam Tan - for offences ranging from theft to gambling.
They had been convicted after the real culprits had assumed their identities between 1974 and 2007 to serve their sentences.
According to court documents, the mistakes were discovered by the police during a comprehensive review of the criminal records database.
In all seven cases, the DPPs said the right thumb print records of the seven which were registered with the national registration office did not match those registered under the Registration of Criminals Act (RCA).
Anyone arrested would have had their fingerprints registered under the RCA. So, they could not have committed the crimes.
The actual culprits in three of the cases had admitted they had assumed their victims' identities when they were first arrested by the police and when they were convicted by the Subordinate Courts for these offences.
The court heard that Kim Boon Tee , Lie Sun Ui and Mamat had assumed the identities of Mr Tan Yiam Kwang , Mr Lee Yak Ooi and Mr Sha'Aban Yahya respectively.
The DPPs said Madam Tan's identity had been used by Gee Kok Wah, a Malaysian man who was sent back across the Causeway on March 1, 1992.
He had been arrested the day before by the anti-vice enforcement unit.
There has been no record of Gee entering Singapore since.
The authorities have also yet to identify the actual culprits in the remaining three cases.
The culprits in these three cases had assumed the identities of two women and a man, later identified as Ms Loh Choon Lui , Ms Tan Boon Chiah and Mr Sirat Haji Abdul Karim.
The experience left Madam Tan shaken.
"I was really afraid when I saw how closely he resembled me," recalled Madam Tan.
"What if he commits more crimes using my identity? He can use my IC to do so many things," she said.
"In the past, I never thought the IC was much important... Now I think I should leave it at home. It's safer."
How it came to light
It all began in 2009, when police officers uncovered a case where a man had fraudulently represented himself as another person when he was charged in court for criminal offences including theft.
As a result, his criminal record had been incorrectly attributed to an innocent party.
The police informed the innocent party later that year.
Following this case, the police reviewed its entire database of more than 500,000 criminal records and found six earlier cases of impersonation that had taken place between 20 and 40 years ago.
A police spokesman said that as part of the review, officers conducted thorough checks by comparing databases from the police and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority to verify the identities of the accused persons.
Fingerprint experts
The spokesman added: "Further verifications were conducted by fingerprint experts. As the cases had taken place more than two decades ago, time was needed to establish the facts of the cases, culpability of victims and subsequent identification of the accused persons.
"There was no miscarriage of justice. All the accused persons in these cases of impersonation had been correctly dealt with in court and sentenced for the crime they committed 20 to 40 years ago."
The police added that these cases of impersonation had occurred during a time when visual matching of fingerprints was done manually to confirm the identity of persons arrested by police.
Today, measures are in place to verify the identity of accused persons before they are charged in court.
The process now involves the use of fingerprint scanning devices and computerised checks with fingerprint databases, thus minimising the chance of human error.
"We have also stepped up our internal audits and protocol compliance checks to ensure such lapses do not recur," said the spokesman.
It had taken the police two years to scrutinise all their records. They are still investigating the impersonators.
Get The New Paper for more stories.
